Kevin Smith - Sport Wellington Coach of the Year 2016

On Wednesday, 15^th June 2016, 700 guests turned up to Wellington’s TSB Arena for the 2016 Sport Wellington Sportsperson of the Year Awards.

For Wellington Golf it was indeed a special night, as we had two of our own nominated in two of the award categories

• Daniel Hillier – Sportsman of the Year
• Kevin Smith – Coach of the Year

Six judges, experts in their sporting and sports media fields, deliberated over 200 nominations across 12 categories to arrive at the winners.  All winners can be found on the Sportsperson of the Year website

Sport Wellington Chief Executive Phil Gibbons said the judges faced major challenges due to the large number of high quality nominations submitted this year. “Tonight (the awards night) showed the depth of the Wellington regional sports community – from 700 people attending to the range of finalists at the community, club, emerging to high performance talent. The quality of nominations was outstanding and the judging panel – experts from community sport, media to high performance - were challenged to settle on the final names in all the categories”.

Unfortunately, Daniel did not quite achieve top honours this year, as his competition was tough, with the World Cup winning All Back and Hurricane Ma'a Nonu being named Sportsman of the Year award, and the overall winner of the Brendan Foot Supersite Sportsperson of the Year for 2016.

However, Wellington Golf is extremely proud to advise that Kevin Smith was named Sport Wellington Coach of the Year 2016!  Kevin was awarded the honour against some very tough competition, which included Chris Boyd (rugby), Mark Watson (kayaking) and Matt Calcott (football).  Well done Kevin. 

As was noted on the night, “Kevin is hugely respected in golf, and coaches a number of Wellington club and representative golfers within the region. Among his many successes, Smith’s most notable achievements have been with the up-and-coming young golfer, Daniel Hillier, who is racking up titles and awards locally, nationally and internationally.

Already recognised as the 2015 Porirua City Coach of the Year and 2016 Kapiti Coach of the Year, Smith’s greatest achievement during the period would be as Coach to the Men’s and Women’s New Zealand Amateur Champions for 2015 - Daniel Hillier and Julianne Alvarez respectively.”

From those that attended the Awards ceremony, it was reported that Kevin, true to his nature, was very gracious in accepting the honour recognising all those who have helped him achieve success, in particular his 90-year old mother who was there with him to celebrate the achievement. 

WGI would like to congratulate Kevin, Daniel and all the nominees for the Sportsperson of the Year Awards.  You provide inspiration to us all.